


Dr. Phlox, I presume?

by SweetPollyOliver



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, First Meetings, M/M, Polyamorous Character, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, San Francisco, rotund middle aged doctors who utterly charm each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-07-29 22:01:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7701331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetPollyOliver/pseuds/SweetPollyOliver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dr. Phlox's human counterpart from the Interspecies Medical Exchange, Dr. Lucas, canonically helped him to 'settle in' when he first arrived in San Francisco. Here is how I imagine they may have started the friendship that led to the years long correspondence that made Dr. Phlox the envy of the Enterprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dr. Phlox, I presume?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ferengifangirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferengifangirl/gifts).



> Written for angelacapelartist for Round 2 of the trek-rarepair-swap.
> 
> Thank you to katiemariie for the beta.

Phlox felt sure that he'd been misinformed about what the local season would be when he first arrived in San Francisco. It was allegedly high summer, in California at that, which he'd been assured was one of the warmer parts of the Earth. Surely he hadn't mixed up the southern and northern hemispheres again? 

And speaking of that, how odd, that humans lived in such a diversity of different climates and regions on their own planet. It seemed very alien to a man whose people all shared a single continent. 

His feet carried him through the main entrance to the hotel reception, where another gentleman was checking in. 

The stranger turned around and let out a short laugh at his appearance--he was wearing something called cargo shorts, which the sales assistant on the space station where he bought them had confidently asserted were very suitable to wear to Earth, a pair of sandals ‘in the style of old Earth Birkenstocks’ and a t-shirt (apparently so named because of its resemblance to the capital T in the Latin alphabet when laid flat with the sleeves outstretched) with a large zip up fleece jacket that had a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge machine embroidered on the front, which Phlox had hastily obtained shortly after stepping off the shuttle and realising that the balmy Californian weather he had been anticipating was nowhere to be found, worn over it. 

"Oh dear," the human stranger said with a smile, which did not appear to be unfriendly. “I guess no one told you before you arrived that Mark Twain once said the coldest winter he ever spent was summer in San Francisco. And with good reason too.”

"Oh so it is summer!" Phlox said. "I was beginning to suspect I had been the victim of a practical joke. The people I spoke to in the Denobulan tourist advisory were rather under the impression that I'd have to all but walk around in my underclothes."

"Denobula? You're a long way from home," the stranger said. "Are you here for the medical conference by any chance?"

"Indeed I am," Phlox said with a smile of his own. "And, in fact, thenceforth to stay for some time."

"Then you must be Dr. Phlox!" the stranger, who was evidently a fellow medical colleague, Phlox realised, after spotting an ID badge on his breast, which read, "Dr. Jeremy Lucas."

The stranger--stranger no more--stuck out his hand and Phlox jumped back a little reflexively, but then remembered the human custom being initiated. He took the outstretched hand gingerly and then shook it a little too firmly. Ah well, plenty of time to practice that particular maneuver while he was here. 

"Dr. Lucas," he said warmly. "I am, of course, familiar with your work on xeno-immunology. It is an honour to meet you."

"Once you're checked in, could I show you around the city?" Dr. Lucas asked. "I love to play tour guide and I would appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about your work with the Interspecies Medical Exchange." 

"I would be delighted," Phlox agreed happily. 

And almost as simply said as done, he checked himself in and went up to his room briefly to change into something that exposed a little less leg to the elements, turned around and went back down to reconvene with Dr. Lucas in the hotel lobby and then they were off. 

*

San Francisco, for all its deceptively chilly summers, was a lovely city and very walkable. His companion informed him that the city covered a relatively small area of land, so they could ‘do everything’ with relative ease. 

In the end they hadn’t done _quite_ everything. He still hadn’t seen ‘The Rock’ (which he guessed was historically significant in some capacity and not just a particularly noteworthy rock, although it didn’t do to assume) or gone to Haight-Ashbury, which was significant for its connection to something called the Summer of Love, which sounded very promising.

However, in addition to crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on foot and taking some of their journey via cable car (something Dr. Lucas said that he always enjoyed to do, but usually only did when he was showing a visitor like himself around the city, which seemed oddly self limiting to Phlox--he firmly urged his new friend to take as many cable car rides as his heart desired, in company or alone, which seemed to amuse him) they walked through several neighbourhoods, including Chinatown, the Financial District, Telegraph Hill and others.

Indeed, the hilliness of the terrain was downright exotic, given the relative flatness of his home city on Denobula, although it did prove a little taxing on the calves, to say nothing of the gluteal muscles, after a few hours.

At about two o'clock, they decided to stop for lunch at a picturesque establishment in North Beach that had outdoor seating. Dr. Lucas informed him that dining in this manner was ‘al fresco.’ 

Phlox was aware that humans typically continued to talk with each other during meals and had preemptively prepared a few remarks about their excursions that afternoon to practise integrating with the local culture, but surprisingly once the food came Dr. Lucas said very little. He had been very convivial while they'd been waiting for their food and had given him advice on what to order, so Phlox didn't think that he had made some gaffe that had suddenly offended his companion. Still. It didn't hurt to check. 

"Is there something wrong, Jeremy?" he asked. 

"Pardon?" Dr. Lucas looked up from his plate, surprised. 

"It's just that you haven't said anything," Phlox elaborated. "It was my understanding that on Earth the custom was to converse during a meal." 

"You are quite right, doctor," Dr. Lucas said. "However, since I had heard that on Denobula the custom was to quietly enjoy a meal together I thought that it might be annoying for you if I were to talk while you were trying to eat."

"You are a very sweet man," Phlox said and Dr. Lucas' cheeks turned bright red. _Curious,_ Phlox thought, but he did not pursue it beyond the observation itself and that he found it very charming. "I do not mind talking, however, if that would be more comfortable for you. I did choose to travel off-world, after all--in no small part for the opportunity to experience things that are _different_ from home. I would be a fool indeed if I expected the universe to cater to Denobulan social conventions exclusively as though they were the natural order." 

"Well, there were a few things that I had been hoping to discuss with you that we hadn't gotten around to earlier today," Dr. Lucas said, his blush still making his round cheeks becomingly rosy. 

"I am all ears," Phlox smiled inhumanly widely while spreading his palms out.

*

Their conversation meandered from research, to their history in medicine, to travel, to Phlox's experiences with the Interspecies Medical Exchange, to how his family must miss him, to a fairly thorough recount of his many familial connections interjected with many fond reminiscences about each individual. 

Phlox had anticipated more surprise about Denobulan polygamy in general and his own complicated family tree specifically, but as it turned out it was Dr. Lucas who surprised him.

"My parents were non-monogamous," he said. "Actually, I think they probably wouldn't have been each other's primary partners if I hadn't come along, never mind gotten married. They were more like best friends who were a bit in love with each other than they were like most of my playmates' mothers and fathers. But anyway, growing up I lived with them and my father's daughters from his first marriage most of the time, with my mother and my mother's girlfriend Auntie Susie and her children part of the time, and with my father and my father's girlfriend Auntie Caroline and _her_ two sons the rest of the time. I think my school friends thought that I was living through the parental divorce from hell, but we were all very happy and very much a family, albeit an unconventional one."

"How Denobulan!" Phlox said, thoroughly charmed by how familiar it all was. "And have you married yourself?" 

"Twice," Dr. Lucas said. "At separate times. But I'm afraid I've been divorced once and widowed once. I haven't quite had my parents' knack for the happy ending." 

"Oh don't say that!" Phlox said. "You're nowhere near the end of your story yet, my dear Dr. Lucas." 

Dr. Lucas blushed again and, if anything, Phlox found it even more pleasing than the last time. He thought that he might just pursue that line of thought after all.


End file.
